Emmy Ratings Down

The Emmy award gave NBC the win in the 18-49 demo Sunday night, but the broadcast's ratings were down about 15% from the year before, seeming to confirm concerns that the move from September to August prompted by NBC's new Sunday night football package would hurt the ratings.

In Nielsen overnight numbers, which do not include the West Coast so there is a caveat there, the show averaged a 5.2 rating/14 share. But that rating was down from the 6 rating it averaged in the West Coast-less Nielsen overnights for a Sept. 18 airing on CBS last year, though up from the 4.7 rating it mustered on ABC the year before that.

But the show also ran into some tough competition from ABC's repeat airing of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which built steadily every half hour over its two hours at 8-10, starting off with a 3.2/10 and finishing with a cannons blazing at a 4.8/12. It gave ABC its best numbers in the time period of the summer.

NBC finished the night with a 4.3/12 average, which was hurt by the pre-show Red Carpet special at 7-8, which only mustered a 1.9/7 for third place in the hour.